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Mother Catherine Thomas
Mother Catherine Thomas of Divine Providence D.C. lived for 60 years as a Discalced Carmelite in New York City and Oklahoma City. She is best known for her autobiography, “My Belov...view moreMother Catherine Thomas of Divine Providence D.C. lived for 60 years as a Discalced Carmelite in New York City and Oklahoma City. She is best known for her autobiography, “My Beloved,” first published in 1955.
She was born Cecelia Walsh in Monticello, New York, the tenth child in a family of thirteen. Her father had been a successful hotel businessman at Virginia Beach before being forced to retire after a serious injury to his leg. Cecelia was in the eighth grade when she was first drawn to Carmel, and, aged 21, she entered the New York City Carmel in January 1928. Twenty-one years later, in 1949, she was sent to Carmel of St. Joseph, Oklahoma City (now in Piedmont), and later became Mother Catherine Thomas.
She was a gifted artist who did calligraphy and illuminations and worked in oils. She was also a skilled seamstress and sewed for many Sisters. During a stint as an in-patient in St. Vincent’s hospital in New York City, Cardinal Francis J. Spellman’s secretary used to accompany him when he visited her, and she told the Cardinal’s sister about (then Sister) Catherine; she in turn visited Sister Catherine and the two struck up a friendship, continued via written correspondence for years afterwards. It would be her talent for letter-writing that led to Sister Catherine writing a book about her life and vocation.
Mother Catherine passed away on September 28, 1988, at the age of 81.view less